Over the past several years, there has been an increasing trend in the use of WSC simulation software in beyond its traditional use of developing training simulators, particularly for power plant equipment design and in control rooms incorporating distributed control system (DCS). Applications such as Simulation Assisted Engineering (SAE) are being used to assist and optimize plant component selection and to validate new DCS designs prior to commissioning.

Engineers have a blind spot with their traditional engineering tools, which generally provide static information of their design. They cannot take their integrated designs for a test-drive, put them through "what-if” scenarios, and shake-out potential problems associated with integration, human-machine interaction, or functional performance. Nor can they test their designs across a full range of operating scenarios and changing conditions. 3KEYMASTER™ Simulation Assisted Engineering "3KEYSAE” process helps fill this void.

With engineering-grade simulation technology provided with 3KEYMASTER™ and the SAE process, it is now possible to reap accumulating benefits throughout the project lifecycle by deploying simulation early in the design phases to reduce risk, accelerate delivery and improve quality at a lower cumulative cost.

The SAE Test Bed includes a high fidelity engineering-grade simulation models of the plant systems and processes, based on plant design basis data. These are developed for verification of the integrated plant systems design, distributed control system configuration. The SAE simulator platform provides an engineering tool that allows for optimization of plant equipment design and selection, verification and validation of DCS control logic and HMI displays, validation of commissioning procedures, and may enhance resource and schedule planning of commissioning tasks. An important aspect of building a new power plant and an SAE simulator to support the many design, development, and testing activities is to have a configuration management system (CMS) capable of storing all pertinent design basis data and revisions to such data (reference 3KEYSAFE™ product), providing data traceability and creation of reports such as simulator design specifications based on the reference plant data.

The primary advantage of SAE is to couple a high-fidelity plant simulation and integrated process models for the purpose of commissioning a power plant design, including plant component selection and DCS control logic schemes prior to the actual construction of the power plant. Through the simulated commissioning of the plant design, design issues are uncovered and resolved prior to implementation of the actual system on the real plant hardware. The advantages of this approach are that many issues can be resolved on a soft platform, without compromising safety, damaging plant equipment, and incurring rework. Therefore, the exposure to prolonged and costly commissioning extensions due to faulty system design and implementation is minimized. Also, commissioning procedures are validated and accurate scheduling of commissioning activities can be planned since executing the complete commissioning program on the real time simulator will provide the necessary timing for the various evolutions that must occur to commission the actual power plant.

Engineering departments are often faced with the challenge of analyzing, predicting, or optimizing the performance of complex systems under varying operating conditions or under fault scenarios. Other than actual physical testing, which could be prohibitively expensive or pose a potential for revenue loss or physical damage to the asset, the only other cost-effective method to perform these tasks is to resort to the use of modeling and simulation.

To assist in situations such as the above, WSC places its competencies in multi-disciplinary simulation to good use as a service offering. WSCs expertise includes the modeling of topologies as well as components, equipment, and machinery used in conjunction with systems such as those listed below:

Fluid systems

Thermal systems

Electrical systems

Fuel and combustion systems

Nuclear systems

Control systems, including Distributed Control Systems (DCS)

The objectives of the simulation-based analysis and consulting could include any of the following:

Conceptual Studies

Design Analysis and Optimization

Establishing Process Parameters and Equipment Sizing

Recommendations for Efficiency improvements

Root cause analysis of observed phenomena

Failure Modes and Effects Analysis

Redundancy Analysis

Probabilistic Risk Assessments

The end deliverables are tailored to the needs of the project and established in consultation with the customer. These would typically include the following:

A fully functional simulation that the customer could use for analysis using its internal resources on an on-going basis

A fully functional simulation and analyses performed by WSC staff on behalf of the customer based on the developed simulation

If you would like to explore what WSC can do for you, please contact us to provide a brief description of your need, and an application specialist from WSC will contact you to discuss your request.